Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Regional Innovation Networks Are Governed: Three Essays On The Roles Of Network Management In Network Effectiveness And Evolution, Beomgeun Cho

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although a networked mode of governance has been often considered as an alternative or superior approach compared to hierarchy and market-based models, it has become clear that networks are also susceptible to failure without purposeful and deliberative management of interorganizational relationships. Constructing a longitudinal dataset of 16 regional innovation networks in South Korea, this dissertation examines how Regional Public Research Institutes (RPRIs) serve as network managers who initiate, facilitate, and mediate regional innovation systems. Drawing on a network research tradition rooted in the Dutch School of governance networks, this study examines how RPRIs leverage social structural resources, originating from their …

Upstream Local Actor And Community-Based Potential In Mass Atrocity Prevention, Numa R. Khan

ALL - Honors Theses

The concept of genocide and mass atrocity prevention is still relatively new. Research on genocide prevention would not begin until post 1995 following the genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (Rosenberg & Zucker, 2015). Therefore, there is much left to be uncovered in the field (Rosenberg & Zucker, 2015), despite that genocides and mass atrocities have occurred for centuries prior to the coining of the term and continue to occur to this day (Bellamy, 2015).

The term genocide falls under atrocity crimes, an umbrella term that refers to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and occasionally ethnic cleansing (United …

A Comparison Of The Whytry Curriculum And Aggression Replacement Training In Adolescents At Risk For Family Breakdown, Grace Elizabeth Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services seeks to provide evidence-based programs to prevent family breakdown. Evidence-based programs are defined as programs that have qualitative and quantitative support of positive outcomes by peer-reviewed articles. Family and Youth Success (FAYS) is a PEI program that seeks to promote resilience in families and youth by offering one-on-one skills-based counseling and group-based learning for children and parents. FAYS utilizes the WhyTry Program and Aggression Replacement Training (ART) as social skills training programs that seek to decrease social problems and aggression and increase social skills. …

Towards Sustainable Development: Civic Architecture As Material Banks, Kathleen O'Gara

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

This thesis posed the question, “How can buildings be designed to be disassembled and reused to reduce construction and demolition waste and reduce our unsustainable reliance on raw materials?” Designing for disassembly and reuse has the potential to dramatically increase the life of building materials, thus decreasing construction and demolition waste relating to architecture. When designing with deconstruction and reuse in mind, designers must consider the next life of these materials. The thesis was further narrowed to push the adaptability of these materials by designing a structural kit of parts. The structure system is often seen as a stable and …

Residents’ Perceptions Of Use On Community Interface Areas At Protected Areas’ Boundaries: A Comparison Between Users And Non-Users, Louis Santiago Brevan

All Theses

Over the past fifty years, Protected Area (PA) management has gradually transitioned from the traditional top-down approach toward a more collaborative and participatory management model, which integrates the needs and perspectives of local communities. This quantitative study used a questionnaire to assess the perceived constraints of visitation, the attitudes toward tourism development, and the level of involvement in decision-making among community members residing near a community interface area on a PA’s boundaries. Structural constraints were the most prominent barrier to visiting (i.e., the poor state of the road and facilities). Residents indicated strong support towards tourism development and nearly half …

Outcome Measures Or Graduation Rates, That Is The Question, Miran Kang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study compared the Outcome Measures (OM) to the traditional Graduation Rates (GR) to ascertain if OM portrayed the performance of higher education institutions differently than GR and to determine which of the two metrics aligned better with accountability policy objectives. GR refers to the percentages of first-time, full-time students who obtain a degree or certificate within 150% of the normal time. OM presents the award status of all degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students on four cohorts: first-time, full-time (FTFT); first-time, part-time (FTPT); non-first-time, full-time (NFTFT); and non-first-time, part-time (NFTPT). OM was a more comprehensive indicator than GR, particularly for 2-year institutions, …

Reaping What We Sow: The Implications And Outcomes Of Mississippi House Bill 1125, The “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (Reap)” Act, Kerigan Brewer

Honors Theses

Mississippi House Bill 1125 (MS HB1125), also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act,” was signed into law by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves in early 2023 (REAP Act, 2023). It is one of multiple policies passed into law that limit the rights of transgender people. This thesis aims to clarify the history of the trans community, dispel myths around gender-affirming health care and the trans identity, and discuss the current state of anti-trans laws and transgender rights. Using a policy analysis framework by DiNitto (2011), MS HB1125 is analyzed on points like its social and economic costs, the …

Inclusive Policy, Diverse Perspectives: Affirmative Action And The Model Minority Among University Students, Jannie Nguyen

Honors Theses

In lieu of the recent Supreme Court overturn of affirmative action, Asian American students were on the forefront as the main racial group defended in this case. The model minority stereotype obscures societal perceptions of Asians and Asian Americans as collectively intelligent, hard-working, and submissive. Whereas the stereotype appears frequently in academic settings, this research aims to understand and contextualize the perceptions on affirmative action among Asian college students within the context and social dynamics of the model minority stereotype. A qualitative approach was deployed to garner nuance narratives of fifteen participants in the study. Participants in the study represent …

Inclusive Policy, Diverse Perspectives: Affirmative Action And The Model Minority Among University Students, Jannie Nguyen

Honors Theses

In lieu of the recent Supreme Court overturn of affirmative action, Asian American students were on the forefront as the main racial group defended in this case. The model minority stereotype obscures societal perceptions of Asians and Asian Americans as collectively intelligent, hard-working, and submissive. Whereas the stereotype appears frequently in academic settings, this research aims to understand and contextualize the perceptions on affirmative action among Asian college students within the context and social dynamics of the model minority stereotype. A qualitative approach was deployed to garner nuance narratives of fifteen participants in the study. Participants in the study represent …

"Men Hunt, Women Gather." Perceptions Of Gender And Leadership In Outdoor Recreation In A Higher Education Setting, Elizabeth Marie Johansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation delved into the complex interaction between gender dynamics and leadership perceptions within outdoor recreation, particularly in the context of higher education. Utilizing Transformational Learning Theory, Critical Feminist Theory, and Conditional Outdoor Leadership Theory, this study aimed to uncover the nuanced ways in which gender influenced perceptions of leadership roles and behaviors in outdoor recreation activities based on participant’s experiences. This study utilized an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design, which included a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to gain a more holistic understanding of participants' perceptions and experiences.

Findings suggest that despite progress towards gender equality in outdoor recreation …

Public Horticulture: Process And Design Of The Lincoln Botanical Garden, Brad Kindler

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Beginning in 2012, the local non-profit, The Lincoln Botanical Garden, began organizing the conceptual design and creation of a glass conservatory within a botanical garden in Lincoln, Nebraska. These proposed urban enhancements seek to fill a gap in garden amenities in the city by providing year-round access to public horticulture programming and education.

This project, Public Horticulture: Process and Design of the Lincoln Botanical Garden, documents these efforts and makes design recommendations for a themed Glacial Erratic Garden that could be constructed within the botanical garden.

Advisors: Ellen Paparozzi and Sam Wortman

Polarimetric Radar Signatures In Significant Severe Left-Moving Supercells, Raychel Nelson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Left-moving (LM) supercells, though rarer than right-moving (RM) supercells, may produce significant severe weather. However, there are very few existing studies on LM supercells, particularly polarimetric radar analyses. The upgrade of the nationwide Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) network to polarimetric capability and subsequent studies vastly improved understanding of RM supercells, but similar efforts have largely not been made for LM supercells. This study employs an automated polarimetric radar signature detection algorithm to examine a dataset of significant severe (hail ≥ 2.00”, wind ≥ 65 kts) LM supercells to quantify their polarimetric signatures. Comparisons are made with RM supercells to …

A Dual-Polarimetric Analysis Of A Large Sample Of Left-Moving Supercells, Ben Schweigert

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Supercells have been researched extensively since they were first described over 50 years ago. They are prolific severe weather producers, responsible for the most severe hail, severe wind gusts, and tornadoes. These rotating thunderstorms require attention from forecasters to protect life and property from their threats, most effectively done with Doppler radars. While extensive amounts of radar-based investigations have been completed, they focused almost exclusively on right-moving (RM) supercells, resulting in a knowledge gap surrounding their counter-rotating (left-moving, LM) partners. This study works to fill the void by developing a dataset of LM supercells and analyzing the dual-polarimetric features observed …

New Perspectives On Peace Settlements: The Significance Of Power-Sharing And Hierarchies On Negotiation Dynamics, Alejandra Vásquez Gutiérrez

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

By examining the impact of the commitment problem between the FARC and the Colombian government, this paper seeks to answer the following question: What led the government and the FARC to finally agree to end the conflict through a peace accord? This research addresses a notable gap in the literature by examining the pivotal role of power-sharing arrangements and hierarchical structures on negotiation dynamics. I conducted in-depth interviews with public officials in Colombia, complemented by the utilization of secondary data. I aim to ascertain whether power-sharing arrangements mitigate the commitment problem and to advance our current understanding of whether rebel …

Coalitional Response(Ability) In Rhetoric And Composition, Zoe Nicole Mcdonald

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation considers the literacy practices of progressive coalitions as a provocative way to examine central responsibilities of rhetorical scholars, college writing instructors, and writing program administrators. Through attention to case studies, this dissertation suggests opportunities to consider social differences as crucial assets for political advocacy, scholarly knowledge production, and teaching strategies.

Advisor: Stacey Waite

A Compilation, Analysis, And Categorization Of 403 Atmospheric And Climate Science Misconceptions, Haeli Leighty

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) has listed the inaccessibility of research related to misconceptions in atmospheric and climate science as a Geoscience Education Research Grand Challenge (Cervato et al. 2018). This project was a direct response to this call for research and consisted of three distinct steps: 1) data gathering, which included reviewing the literature for relevant misconception data, 2) a qualitative analysis, which included compiling, organizing, and categorizing the data collected, and 3) a quantitative analysis, which included determining the prevalence of each misconception across topic categories, demographic categories, and over time. A total of 403 misconceptions …

Predicting The Future Of Myanmar’S Civil War: Can Half A Century Of Military Rule Be Defeated?, Nathan Ritterling

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In 2021, the military of Myanmar launched a coup in response to their overwhelming defeat in the 2020 elections, resulting in an end to the country’s tentative move towards democracy and in intense violence to suppress opposition to the coup. Anti-junta forces quickly formed in the aftermath to directly oppose the military and return the country to democratic rule, and began collaborating with long-standing ethnic militias in their efforts. This has led to a state of prolonged civil war, as the two sides fight for dominance over the nature of Myanmar’s future government. This paper investigated the potential outcome of …

Sexual Exploitation: The Crisis And Eradicative Solution, Tonnie Adams Bracey

Nonprofit and NGO Studies Student Projects

French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I find this to be true in our current era of the digital age. Although technology has gifted a newly improved and vast method of making worldwide connections and broadening our perceptions and views, a change in how we communicate has conveniently presented itself, but the historic pattern of how we handle these new advancements have indeed stayed the same.
Smart phones are a mainstream vessel employing the world with a plethora of information while giving all sorts of people access to individual’s lives …

Assessment Of Western Farmers’ Use, Knowledge, And Acceptance Of Cover Crops And The Agri-Environmental Schemes That Support Their Use, Lauren Golden

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Agri-environmental schemes (AES), which pay farmers to adopt conservation practices, are increasingly important environmental and agricultural policy tools. Despite large budgetary shares allocated to these programs, studies identify lower-than-expected environmental outcomes. In the U.S. reasons for low environmental outcomes include low participation rates, lack of program awareness, and poor targeting levels. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the largest conservation program in the U.S. highly promotes cover crops, as this practice has many benefits to water, air, and soil quality. The Western U.S.is a large cropping region where data on cover crop use and AES participation are lacking. Using a …

Promoting Successful Industry Academic Partnerships For Curriculum Development: Integration Of Multiple Streams Framework And Stakeholder Theory, Jennifer D. Gudapati

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There is a widening gap between traditional higher education and the needs of the industry workforce. Higher education has lately been criticized for having too few voices playing a role in most curricula development, with the voices being used consisting largely of career academics (Nature Editorial, 2023). Both industry and academia have found a disconnect between academic training and preparedness to enter the labor market (Jackson et al., 2016). Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) and Stakeholder Theory (ST) have been offered as potential frameworks for guiding elements of policy or strategy development and implementation in this context. However, in this dissertation, …

Narratives On Homelessness: Investigating The Connections Between Organizational Language And Learning, Lantz Mcginnis-Brown

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The increasing privatization of government and the associated growth of the nonprofit sector means that the delivery of public services is increasingly taking place outside of the traditional domain of government. Variation between nonprofits now significantly shapes the range of public experiences with ‘government’. The type of feedback process that a nonprofit employs with a particular stakeholder group may shape that group’s experiences in an organization’s “action situation” - the “social spaces where individuals interact, exchange goods and services, solve problems, dominate one another, or fight” (Ostrom, 2011, p.11). Nonprofits with poor feedback processes, and accordingly poor conceptions of client …

The Opioid Epidemic In Virginia: Comparing Case Studies Of County-Level Implementation Of Opioid Response Plans, Sydney Elyse Fox

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This project entails a mixed method review of the implementation of opioid policies in the 133 cities and counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia using van Meter and van Horn’s (1975) Model Theoretical Framework as a guide. This study focuses upon understanding how the characteristics of successful implementation intersect with the components of opioid policy, controlling for education, poverty, and health insurance coverage, and how that interaction may lead to reduced overdose deaths. According to van Meter and van Horn, political agreement is necessary to create a policy with an administrative mechanism to implement. This administrative mechanism, along with resources, …

Word Choice, Deep Core Beliefs, And Unlikely Alliances: Increasing The Distance Traveled By The Narrative Policy Framework, Dalten Warren Fox

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands the use and capabilities of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) by utilizing the framework across three projects that address prevailing knowledge gaps. Since 2010, the NPF literature has produced significant evidence for the importance of understanding the roles of narrative language in public policymaking. Moreover, the NPF’s creators have consistently called upon other policy narrative scholars to challenge, refine, and expand the framework. To contribute to this endeavor, this collection of studies examines language components previously unconsidered by the NPF, leverages the framework in untested belief areas, and examines atypical policy subsystem dynamics using the framework. The …

“Bona Fide And Sincerely-Held”: How Deep Core Beliefs Inform And Influence Policy Engagement At The Institutional Level, Grant Miller

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Developing, fine-tuning, and implementing policy in a pluralistic society includes several potential pitfalls as policy actors engage and represent divergent interests. While much work has been done to explore the possible benefits to the policy process that could come from understanding the intrinsic motivations of individual policy actors, this study is an effort to account for the impact of the core beliefs of institutions as a whole when they engage in the policy process. Drawing from the concepts of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) regarding deep core beliefs, this study applies Moral Foundations Theory to process and analyze the language …

E-Government In Idaho’S Small Cities: Factors Of Adoption, Implementation, And Growing Organizational Capacity, Jeffrey Adam Skinner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades, a growing body of academic research has focused on e-government in incorporated cities. Much of this research has focused on large and medium sized cities, with most researchers neglecting the study of small cities due to antiquated assumptions and assertions regarding population size and fiscal resources. This has created a digital divide in the literature, which impacts small cities and the citizens they serve. However, recent, and rapid changes have made e-government technology more widely available at a relatively lower cost. This, along with the punctuating events of the COVID-19 pandemic, indicate that e-government in …

Exploring Creative Economy Policy Change In United States Cities: An Interconnected Theoretical Approach Framing An Emerging Field And Practice, Matilda Rose Bubb

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The creative economy is a relatively new policy arena focusing on the consumption and production of culture and cultural products, urban development and placemaking, intellectual property protection, entrepreneurship and innovation, tourism, sustainability, and social impact. Despite its documented growth in U.S. cities in the past twenty years, we know very little about how these policy innovations spread, or about who advocates for them. To contribute to public policy research and the creative economy sector, I ask the following overarching question: How are emerging creative economy policy innovations spread, adopted and implemented in cities identified as highly creative in the United …

An Analysis Of Truancy Causes And Prevention Programming In Clark County, Nevada, Jennifer Ashley Fletcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the United States truancy prevention is lacking two key elements to success; research that explains the causes of truancy and empirical evidence for best practices of truancy prevention. Truancy has been a problem in academics since the early 1900’s, when truancy became illegal. Since then, truancy rates have continued to see a steady increase, and today approximately 10% of public school students in the United States are truant every day (Maynard et al., 2017). To combat this problem, research needs to be conducted to understand why truancy happens. However, there is a severe lack of research on this topic; …

The Impact Of Policy And Perception On Women’S Health Since 2010, Eryn Busenbark

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This project tackles the complicated relationship between policy and perception of women’s health in the last decade. This was achieved through research on existing literature and semi-structured interviews with five professionals in various areas of women’s health: mental health, public policy, sexual health education, and research. Literature reviews were conducted using University of Nebraska at Omaha Criss Library’s databases, with dozens of articles analyzed. The goal of this research was to gain an understanding of how public opinion and perceptions can sway policy, which has created challenges and consequences for women and their health.

States’ Covid-19 Restrictions Were Associated With Increases In Drug Overdose Deaths In 2020, Douglas A. Wolf, Shannon M. Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, Emily E. Wiemers, Elyse Grossman

Population Health Research Brief Series

Drug overdoses surged in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts raised concerns in the pandemic’s early months about how the pandemic and the policies enacted to stem it might increase overdose risk. This brief summarizes the findings of a paper that used national data to identify how states’ COVID-19 policies affected drug overdose rates among U.S. adults ages 25-64 during the first year of the pandemic. Results show that counties located in states that adopted more aggressive in-person activity restrictions experienced larger increases in 2020 than counties located in states with fewer limitations. State economic support policies …

Policy Solutions For Juvenile Cyber-Deviant Behaviors: Insights From Criminological Theory, Holly Verity Williams

All Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of online deviance as a phenomenon among juveniles, both in terms of engagement and victimization, by applying Attachment Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Self-Control Theory. Throughout the literature, Attachment Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Self-Control Theory have been attributed as key criminological theories in the explanation of juvenile deviance offline, but little research has been applied to online deviance in this way. This thesis seeks to apply the same criminological theories to the phenomenon of online deviance among juveniles and compare outcomes to both online and offline deviance among …